Share this:

Like this:

Painting and sharing in the new web site format Studio Journey, with our artist guide Nancy Hillis, brings the fulfillment of granting the permission to create, for many knowledgeable painters from all over the world. Nancy Hillis is an inspiring painter, teacher and medical doctor who brings us all together through the website to share her projects, resulting in the creation of art work and feedback from one another.

Thank you Nancy for leading our inspiring journey, which has just begun.

As a beginning, our first intention was to work in a series, encouraging experimentation within a framework of self imposed limitations. Some artists chose limited color range, some chose exploring art mark making. An amazing outpouring of creative production rose from this first task, generating a wide range of very well informed results. I hope to share some of these with you after I gain artist permission for the use of their works in my blog.

For now, I share with you the paintings I have created on this Journey so far. I lost my studio about a month ago and this program gave me the impetus to resume painting again. For that, I am indeed very grateful.

The artist’s hand.

Share this:

Like this:

Beneath the surface of these paintings by Nancy Hillis, there lies a secret key to unlocking the viewer’s subconscious mind. Just try gazing at these works and see what happens. For me, these images ignited the emergence of a new rush of positive dreams, I realized when I woke up the following morning. I hadn’t dreamed like that for many years. In fact, I had become virtually unable to remember my dreams upon waking. For me, it would seem that these paintings acted upon my mind as a catalyst for igniting the subconscious mind.

Janis Kirstein

Invitation to The Artist’s Journey

“I have been an existential psychiatrist and artist for over 20 years and through this work I have learned that the secret to creating expressively alive paintings is by trusting yourself. My vision and the work of my life in art and psychiatry is helping others to trust themselves and to create meaningful lives through their work. Take the plunge and start on your own path towards making the work of your life. Show us what you love!”

Nancy Hillis

Click on thumbnails to enlarge

“The art of activating the canvas and bringing your painting to life with your own personal lexicon of mark making, expressive gestures and brushwork is nothing short of miraculous.

To create authentic and alive abstract paintings that are unique to you and your own vision is the ultimate attainment for an artist and yet the most elusive.

One issue is that you can get stuck repeating what’s worked before in your work. Another issue is trying to recreate what you love about other artists’ work.

I’ve found myself in both situations. When I finished my residency in psychiatry at Stanford I became fascinated with abstract painting. I felt that it was a mirror into the artist’s inner world, a potent and unique personal expression of the artist.”

Painting by Nancy Hillis

“I loved attending museums and galleries that featured abstract artists, in particular abstract expressionist work. I admired the museum exhibitions with works of Cy Twombley, Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler. I’d feel excited to go home and try to create paintings as raw, immediate and expressive as theirs! I wanted to paint works that astonished me. I wanted my art to mean something.”

I wanted to breathe life into my paintings

“The day I finished my residency in psychiatry I started creating abstract paintings. I didn’t know what I was doing but I’ve come to learn that this is a good thing. Saying this brings to mind the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind where Shunryu Suzuki said “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” Cultivating an open mind and maintaining the teachable spirit of a beginner is a potent practice for artists at every stage of development.”

Being An Artist Is About ‘Not Knowing’

“One of the things I’ve learned on this journey is that being an artist is about continually evolving. It’s about searching and finding your way as you create. It’s about experimentation.”

In this video, Nancy explains the benefits of specific steps in painting for allowing the development of an open mind.

Share this:

Like this:

Coming to the paint

Before I could tie my own shoes, I played a small accordion. I studied piano, saxophone, then jazz and music theory at a Maryland public high school. In college, I studied theater performance, learning new forms of materializing sounds in transitory space. I acted, directed, and wrote poetry and plays.

After graduation I distilled my writing further, in search of the precise moments of emotion and of contact. Not narrating the beginnings and ends, but middles; the being in the middle of things.

Since 2000, I’ve worked almost exclusively on hand-stretched canvas, in turns building large, sometimes multi-paneled works on canvas, and smaller works on canvas and paper. From my studio in Portland, OR, I partner with gallerists, design professionals, art agents, and private clients to place my paintings nationwide.

I would like to give special thanks to Thérèse Murdza for allowing me to feature her art work on KIRSTEINFINEART.

Call to Action: For more informative features on the finest contemporary artists working today, please subscribe to the KIRSTEINFINEART Blog “Collector’s Choice.” Just go to the bottom of this page and click on the subscribe button. Enter your name and email. Thanks so much!